My first tip for you is to use a separate Facebook account for running your business. Whilst it’s nice to show everyone you have a human side, like to have fun and indulge in a bit of banter, it’s for the best to maintain a professional approach to your marketing. You don’t have to be a marketing robot but people who are interested in your business will be more likely to respond to something you’ve posted relating to internet marketing rather than a post about taking your dog for a walk!

My second tip is to use a good picture for your profile and use your real name. You can go for the standard business attire like a suit or something smart casual. Either way, looking professional is a good idea. There’s nothing overly wrong with looking like you’re having fun but pulling a stupid face or holding a can of beer could possibly give people a different impression to the one you’re trying to make. Also, focus on your face and make sure it’s clear to see. People always like to put faces to names and vice versa.

Adding Friends

To build up relationships and help put your name out there look to add around 25 targeted friends per day. ‘Targeted’ means relevant to you and your business. You’re wasting your time if you add somebody who has no interest in what you do. Find people interested in Internet Marketing. Search through group pages on ‘Making Money Online’ etc because these are the people that have an active interest in what you do and a friendship will be formed easily.

Because you’ll start your account with zero friends you need to make sure you don’t look like somebody who randomly adds because Facebook frowns upon that and could ban you. To start with add people you already know within the industry (your mentor etc) and then go for the people who they are already friends with. These people will see you know the said person and will almost certainly accept your request.

DO NOT ADD 25 IN A ROW!

Spread out these requests through out the day as Facebook will cotton on to your multiple adds and ask you not to send the request if you don’t know the person. You’ll end up with warnings and possibly a ban. 25 per day, week in week out is perfectly safe. You’ll soon notice that once you’ve built up a friend list of over 500 people, you’ll end up getting more and more requests from like-minded people and your list will explode.

I have over 2,200 friends. When I first started I was adding 25 a day and hitting my targets. Within a couple of months people were adding me. Sometimes I would log in after a couple of days of not checking my adds and have 50 plus requests. One time, after a mini-holiday I came back to 78 requests!

Tip:

To begin with put a nice message in with your request to each person. Something like “Hi, I’ve seen your profile and think it would be great if you would accept my friend request. I’m looking to meet and network with like-minded people to share values and opinions. Thanks.” Anything like this will do, although most people understand that gaining a friend is always worthwhile for many reasons so I’ve personally found that after you’ve built up a decent friend list a simple add will do just fine.

OK, you will more than likely be wondering to yourself what to next. You’ve got a Facebook account for your business, you’re adding friends (most of whom you don’t know) and people are adding you. What you need to do is GET INVOLVED!

The most inspirational entrepreneurs that I follow are the HARDEST WORKING! They are forever commenting on people’s status updates, posting on each other’s walls, uploading links to blogs, videos, podcasts etc to offer TRUE VALUE to the community as well as potential customers. They GET INVOLVED and this is what gets them noticed by hundreds and thousands of Facebookers and helps BRAND THEMSELVES.

Tip 1:

LIKE people’s STATUS UPDATES. Don’t be a spammer and like everything because people will think you have nothing to offer or are not really interested. Scroll through the news feed and like the status updates that genuinely appeal to you. This way you can comment freely on this status and continue any possible conversations.

Tip 2:

READ, WATCH and LISTEN to people’s posts. Then COMMENT. Whether it be a blog, video or podcast, there’s a chance it will offer you great VALUE and an opportunity to learn new tricks of the trade. Even if it doesn’t offer anything your feedback will be greatly appreciated and it puts your name out there once again.

I will never forget the kind comments I’ve received in the past and out of my 2,300 friends I can name each and every one of these entrepreneurs. Now THAT’S NAME BRANDING for you! What I find as well, is that ever since these people left an impression on me I’m always looking out for their posts and have developed a decent friendship with all of them. We regularly converse and share ideas, which is great for business.

Tip 3:

WRITE INTERESTING STATUS UPDATES. If you write regular updates you’ll appear in people’s news feeds more often and are more likely to get likes and comments. Do your best to become familiar with everybody. Don’t just write boring, generic updates. Try to alternate between your business and interests. If EVERY status refers to your business you may come across as a bit spammy and forceful. Remember, you’re here to offer great VALUE and people like to know a little more about the person.

Like football? Throw in the odd update about your favourite team. I’ve met many fellow football fans and we have regular banter. Like music, movies, painting, technology etc – pop a status up about what interests you. You’ll soon get regular comments and learn more about your friends.

Millions of people chitchat on the net everyday checking their MySpace and Facebook accounts for the day’s activities. Chances are better than average that you have one or both of these accounts right now and you have liked, poked or quizzed at least once! Most people will go through all of these motions daily without ever thinking about how these sites got their beginnings, The Social Network is a movie that seeks to address that question for the master of the social network sites, Facebook!

On Facebook

If you are one of the few people on the planet who has yet to start your own Facebook page, first of all you are in the minority. So what is all the hoopla about? Facebook is the premiere social site on the net, it is a place where you can share your life with the rest of the world, well at least those on your friends list!

Getting started on Facebook is pretty simple you just fill out a little information, choose a password and you are set to begin adding stuff to your profile. One of the most commonly shared media forms on the site are pictures. People post pictures at a lightening rate of anything and everything! Kids, dogs, summer vacation or the cake they baked last night are all fair game for an upload to Facebook.

The images, comments and other activity you partake in on the site can only be seen by you and your friends. Now these may or may not be people you actually know outside of the internet. Some people prefer to keep their Facebook page a place for close personal friends and relatives while others accept every friend request sent their way.

In addition to leaving comments, sending messages and sharing photos you can also play a variety of games through the site. Farm Town and Farmville are two of the most popular games created for the Facebook platform. Your success with these applications will depend a good deal; on how many friends you have that play and how often you plan on signing in! If the idea of your own virtual farm does not impress you much perhaps you would like you own virtual apartment in Yoville or an island paradise, pretty much anything you can think of has an application on Facebook.

The Movie

The Social Network is a movie dedicated to telling the story of how Facebook got started. The tag line, “you can’t have 500 million friends without making some enemies” pretty much sums up this exciting film. Watch as the co-creators go from being average college kids to earning billions, yes billions of dollars! Of course, the film is not without some intrigue as accusations of theft, privacy violations and best friends suing each other for massive sums of money fill out the plot. This movie is shaping up to be a super success.

It’s 2017 and Facebook is still the largest social network on the planet. With over 1.2 billion active users, out of which almost 65% log in daily to this gigantic platform, Facebook was not at all famous back when it launched. A decade ago, there were no more than a few million people using Mark Zuckerberg’s experiment of a social network. A decade ago, nobody expected Facebook to be a global success.

Is something going to stop it from growing at an even faster rate? With the momentum Facebook has been having over the last 5 years, do you think anything will stop it? The shocking answer is “almost definitely no”, because Facebook is here to stay. Any social network or online platform with a user base that large will probably never go down, but simply adapt, instead.

Most digital marketers use Facebook to promote their products to the massive audience, and there’s no better place to advertise than Facebook, because everyone’s ideal market is using it 24/7. But you may wonder – how can one target Facebook users with marketing?

One of the best things about Facebook advertising is that their official advertising platform allows you focus on exactly who you are looking for by age, location, gender, interests, and so much more! The basics of Facebook marketing are very simple, and I’ve been following advice from an expert on Facebook marketing online to bring you the basics of how taking advantage of Facebook.

With 13 being the minimum age requirement for Facebook, almost all age groups use it. There is no official publicly available data by Facebook about their most active age groups, but dozens of researchers showed that the age group of 18-29 is the group you’ll stumble upon the most. Accordingly, people 65 and older barely show interest in using it frequently.

What are the best forms of advertising?

* Page-based ads

Unlike profiles, Facebook pages are your gateway to advertising. They are very similar to profiles, but their purpose is for businesses, organizations, and public figures. Facebook users Like a page, and from that point, they begin following a Page and all its public updates.

Pages are totally free and very straightforward when it comes to setting them up, but the tricky part is getting a good number of fans. That’s where the advertising part steps in.

With page-based ads, you can create Like campaigns or CTA campaigns that are perfect for showcasing an external website.

* Groups

Facebook groups are what forums should have been, and they are similar to Pages, with the addition being that anyone can post updates to a Group. You can create a group that relates to your industry or audience and start from there. Groups are free and without wasting money on ads, you can engage a lot of users in no time.

* Profile Photo – indirect advertising

Your profile photo is the placeholder for your logo. It’s that simple. When it comes to the Cover Image, it’s a different story, because you’re the one who has to decide what goes here. Some use imaginary mascots, others showcase discounts or even their own employees. Fancy artwork with a flat design is always a great option, though.

* The “About” section

It’s a short pitch that can make or break your Facebook marketing campaign. This goes right below your business’ logo / profile picture, and this is where you get to tell the wide Facebook community what you’re about.

All you have to do to succeed is to keep it friendly and informal, because nothing beats a casual tone.

Conclusion

Facebook is more than just a powerful social network. It’s flexible, and no matter what your niche is, you can enjoy enough varieties of marketing options. With them, you can tailor your marketing efforts to fit all your company’s needs.

Of course it takes time to learn all of Facebook’s wide features, but believe me, once you get through them all, it will be so worth it! You want to make sure you embrace the constant growth that Facebook is having, and then work on social media marketing.